Oldman was a FANTASTIC Dracula. And you're right, the score is awesome. I just watched this again the other night and was marveling at the vampire bat in that scene. That costume was epic. Beautiful work.

omg..poor Winona's accent is SO terrible.i just can't get her saying clock for clerk outta my brain, unfortunately it's seared into it forevvvver. she had a lot to do with that movie being made, so it pretty much became a vehicle for her, it's so obvious too.

& Keanu, good grief..i don't know, he's totally miscast. the both of them seem like little kids lost amongst the grownups. Coppola wanted the movie to be VERY sexy & everyone pretty much is, except for Ryder & Reeves.

Gary Oldman & Anthony Hopkins are clearly in another movie. Hopkins holding the severed brides heads by the hair & then tossing them as the edit takes us into the "eating bloody beef scene"...hahaha!!..Gold...<3

& Gary Oldman is like the sexiest count ever. i STILL have the biggest crush on him because of that wonderful performance. my Mina woulda run off with him in a heartstop.. : D

the wardrobe is absolutely amazing, it's LOVE to the max. i bought the book with all the sketches & photos of all the costumes that were created by Eiko Ishiok, she also created for The Cirque du Soleil as well. such an amazing & talented woman (RIP)

Agree. Inspite of "those two" I think it's the best Dracula movie that's been done. Visually mesmerizing! And that is one of my favorite scenes too although it reminded me of the two live rats that my cat brought into the living room through the cat door to play with last night. Yuck!

I'm in a facebook Hammer Horror group and this movie gets debated frequently. hard to deny Oldman does a helluva job here. Early on I was able to purchase one of the mechanical marionettes used in the reddish Vlad the Impaler sequences. They use it again inside the carnival tent when Mina encounters the wolf. Pretty cool piece of film history..

I agree Winona is pretty bad in the film, which is sad because she was so good in The Crucible just a short while later..

I'd add that now that Universal has stated they are going to return the classic monster lineup to the screen but in very super-hero-like adaptations it's time to go back and love these dramatic versions even that much more....

I think the romantic leads in the Lugosi Dracula were pretty bad, too, so that makes me feel a little more charitable toward (admittedly miscast) Reeves and Ryder. Really, I just didn't like how Coppola made Dracula all lovey-dovey. But that's just consistent with the times, I guess.

a facebook Hammer Horror Group sounds awesome, i LOVE those films!& how thrilling to own one of the mechanical marionettes from Coppola's Dracula, those scenes are SO nostalgic & beautifully done too. i remember Coppola speaking about their inspiration & significance to him ..<333333

& to sorta quote, a great director, Richard Linklater, anyone can make a movie, especially these days. he said something like, "can't blame the man for holding us down anymore"....do it!!!.. : )

Steve, i agree about the lovey-dovey stuff. Dracula in the novel didn't have a love interest. Not sure where or when they decided that Dracula had to meet a modern version of a past love. Such a lame gimmick. But I guess that makes the film have mass appeal.Lame, i say.

Bela could barely speak English when Tod Browning filmed Dracula. He had to speak much of the dialog via phonetic memorization. The imagery of that film is iconic but it's not close to being one of the better early U films. It's pretty amazing to see how much these people had honed their craft in just 5 years by comparing Dracula to the epic Bride of Frankenstein. Bela himself felt right at home as Ygor just after that. I'll always stand by Ygor as Bela's work job on film in SoF.Ygor stole bodies.. They said...

iMO the Mexican Dracula that filmed during studio off hours was better in a few instances but still lacked in similar ways to Browning's version.. Not nearly as iconic as Lugosi either. Both movies suffered from lack of film score. Another area where the Frankenstein movies excelled...

It kind of strikes me differently depending on my mood but one thing is for sure: as far as art production goes, Coppola's Dracula is second to none. The castle, the brides, the asylum, all the sets and costumes, are a joy to behold.

I totally agree about the sets being pretty grand - but surprisingly nothing filmed outside of SoCal!Nothing though quite trumps Hammer's use of Bray Studios, which of course is essentially a house (Down Place) with a few small adjacent buildings (including Oakley Court where Rocky Horror was filmed). They redecorated this house and shot from differing angles hundreds of times for the different films and it's still a challenge to ID what you're looking at - though it was always beautiful.. As far as Dracula films go I would point to Brides of Dracula (such a great film!) as the best looking Hammer vampire outing. All of this clever gel lighting that haunters use is predated by decades by Hammer. I have no knowledge of anyone doing it in film to this extent before them - not Bava or the other "color" guys.. Ironically I covered this in a recent posty: http://spookyfranklin.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-many-faces-of-bray-studios.html